Stoking fears of terrorism

While the outcome of the August 21 federal election remains unclear, key questions also remain unanswered about the police 'terrorism' raids conducted just two days earlier.

Federal and state police conducted dawn raids in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth on 17 homes and offices of Kurdish Australians in what the Australian Federal Police (AFP) described as a 'joint counter terrorism investigation'.

In the Melbourne suburb of Pascoe Vale, AFP and Victoria Police officers arrived at the offices of the Kurdish Association of Victoria at 6 am and spent most of the day searching the premises. In Sydney, the Australian Kurdish Association offices in Bankstown were raided, as were five premises in Perth, including the headquarters of the Kurdish Association of Western Australia.

The AFP offered no explanation for the timing of the raids, but conceded there was no immediate threat. In a brief statement, the AFP said it wanted to assure the public that the operation did not relate to 'any terrorist related threat or incident'. Instead, the investigation concerned 'allegations of financing of a terrorist organisation'.

The AFP did not specify the organisation, but police leaks to the media indicated that it is the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group based in Turkey that the Howard government controversially listed as a terrorist organisation under the counter-terrorism laws in 2005. The Labor government has maintained the ban.

The Kurdish Association has actively campaigned for the lifting of the ban, which was imposed by executive order after the Turkish prime minister visited Canberra. In response to the police raids, the group issued a statement saying it supported the PKK's cause but did not provide it with funds.

The Pascoe Vale offices provide a range of services to Kurdish migrants, including settlement, advocacy, referral, education and health advice. The association also offers cultural and recreational programs, such as folk dancing, traditional music and Kurdish language lessons.

There is evidence that the politically sensitive raids proceeded with the federal government's approval. A solicitor representing the association, Chris Ryan, told journalists he had seen the search warrant and it was dated several days earlier. He pointed out that the raids could have been conducted after the election.

Ryan revealed that at a meeting several weeks earlier he had raised with federal Attorney-General Rob McClelland concerns expressed by members of the Kurdish community that the government's continued listing of the PKK as a terrorist organisation could see Kurds unfairly targeted by police. McClelland rejected his request to reverse the ban.

In effect, it appears that the police operation constituted a pre-election demonstration that the Labor government remained fully committed to the so-called 'war on terror'.

The raids certainly demonstrate how the post-2001 'anti-terrorism' legislation — introduced by the Howard government with Labor's backing, and maintained by Labor since 2007 — can be used not only against Muslims but anyone seen by the government as politically undesirable.

The legislation features sweeping definitions of 'terrorist act' and 'terrorist organisation'. Someone can be jailed for up to 25 years for donating to, or supporting, an overseas political group alleged to be attempting to 'intimidate' or 'coerce' any government, including by threatening to disrupt infrastructure. These provisions apply even if the group is also involved in humanitarian projects.

Under these vague definitions, people could have been jailed as 'terrorists' for giving money to the anti-apartheid movement, Irish republican causes, or East Timorese independence groups. Whether an organisation is officially designated 'terrorist' or a 'liberation movement' depends entirely on the political needs and calculations of the government of the day.

In 2007, three prominent Tamil Australians were arrested on charges of being members of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and providing funds to the LTTE, knowing it to be 'a terrorist organisation'. Two years later, those charges were dropped, partly because the LTTE had not been banned in Australia. However, the men were convicted on five remaining charges under the little-known Charter of the United Nations Act 1945 of providing money to a 'proscribed organisation'.

Like the LTTE, the PKK has a perspective of seeking to establish a separate state. In my view, it offers no progressive solution to the protracted oppression of the Kurdish minorities in Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Armenia. Nevertheless, the PKK is not a terrorist group, but a political organisation. While the PKK has been involved in actions targeting civilians in Turkey, successive Turkish governments are responsible for the armed conflict. The Turkish military and allied fascist gangs have a long history of terrorism against the Kurdish minority and other political opponents.

By the time of the 2007 election, the anti-terrorism laws became discredited by the exposure of a series of frame-ups involving alleged Muslim terrorist suspects, including Mohamed Haneef, Itzar ul-Haque, David Hicks and Jack Thomas. The incoming Labor government pledged to 're-establish public confidence' in the laws by conducting a judicial inquiry into Haneef's case. The ultimate result has been moves to bolster the laws, including making it more difficult for alleged terrorist defendants to obtain bail, and expanding the definition of terrorism to include psychological harm, terrorist hoaxes, threats and 'inciting violence'.

For six years after 2001, the Howard government stoked fears of terrorism to provide a pretext for anti-democratic 'terrorism' laws and to justify its participation in the US-led military occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. The Labor government has maintained a similar course, with far-reaching implications for basic legal, political and civil rights.

Dr Michael Head is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Western Sydney. He has published books in the areas of administrative law and legal theory.